Litigating in Nevis: Procedure, Injunctions, Freezing Orders and Disclosure

Scope of the chapter. This chapter describes how a dispute about a Nevis trust, limited liability company or multiform foundation is litigated in the High Court sitting in the Nevis Circuit. It follows a claim from the decision to sue through service, interim relief, disclosure, enforcement and costs. Chapter 3 described the court, its jurisdiction and the Civil Procedure Rules in outline (see supra ch. 3). Chapters 21 and 22 examined the creditor's substantive claim and the bond and other conditions on suit (see supra chs. 21, 22). Chapter 23 examines foreign judgments and the firewall provisions, and chapter 25 examines how courts outside Nevis treat Nevis structures (see infra chs. 23, 25). This chapter supplies the procedure that connects them.

Three layers of law. Litigation in Nevis is governed by three layers of law, and a litigant who reads only one of them will misjudge the case.

1. The Rules. The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court Civil Procedure Rules (Revised Edition) 2023 apply in all nine member states and territories of the Supreme Court. They took effect on July 31, 2023, and replaced the Rules of 2000. E. Carib. Sup. Ct. Civ. P. R. (Revised Edition) 2023, rr. 1–2 ("CPR"). They govern starting a claim, service, interim remedies, disclosure, case management, costs and appeals.
2. The general law. The High Court exercises the equitable jurisdiction of the English courts. The Court of Appeal has described the High Court of the Federation as "the repository of all the powers referred to as the 'inherent jurisdiction' possessed by the common law courts of England." Millennium Fin. Ltd. v. McNamara, HCVAP 2008/012, para. 23 (E. Carib. Sup. Ct. C.A. St. Kitts & Nevis Mar. 15, 2010), quoted in Daniel Brantley, No Creditors' Winding Up of International Business Companies Formed in Nevis (n.d.) (see supra ¶ 240). Freezing injunctions, third-party disclosure orders and receivers rest on that jurisdiction. Decisions of the Privy Council on appeal from other member states of the Supreme Court, applying the same equitable jurisdiction, are followed (see supra ¶ 270).
3. The Ordinances. The trust Ordinance, the LLC Ordinance and the Multiform Foundations Ordinance withdraw or condition the court's powers in favor of the structures they create. They bar certain orders, require affidavits and bonds before any order is made, and direct that proceedings be heard in private. Nevis International Exempt Trust Ordinance, Cap. 7.03(N), §§ 24(4), 50(3), 61, 63 ("NIETO"); Nevis Limited Liability Company Ordinance, Cap. 7.04(N), §§ 60(14), 62 ("NLLCO"); Multiform Foundations Ordinance, Cap. 7.08(N), §§ 83, 113 ("MFO").

The Rules and the general law are shared with the other member states of the Supreme Court, and a creditor's counsel trained in the British Virgin Islands will find most of them familiar. The third layer is particular to Nevis. It decides most creditor cases.

Who litigates in Nevis. Three kinds of litigant appear in the Nevis Circuit in disputes about the structures this treatise describes. The first is the insider: a trustee seeking directions, a beneficiary suing a trustee, members of an LLC in a governance dispute. In re Corona Trust and SM Life Ventures LLC v. Morrice were cases of this kind (see supra ¶¶ 350, 360). The second is the outside creditor of a settlor, member or founder, who comes to Nevis because the assets, or the persons who control them, are there. The third is the foreign litigant who wants help from the Nevis court for proceedings elsewhere: an order freezing assets pending a foreign judgment, an order compelling a registered agent to disclose who owns a company, or the examination of a witness. The Rules treat all three alike. The Ordinances do not, and much of this chapter concerns the difference.

The creditor's problem in one paragraph. A creditor who sues in Nevis to reach trust property must issue within two years of the transfer, file an affidavit proving that and other matters before the court will make any order, deposit a bond of EC$270,000, prove its fraudulent-disposition claim beyond reasonable doubt, and accept that no order may be made whose purpose is to interfere with the trust property or the trustee's powers. NIETO §§ 24(4), 26, 50, 61. A creditor of an LLC member is confined to a charging order, cannot obtain any interlocutory order against the LLC in respect of its claim against the member, and must post a bond fixed by the court. NLLCO §§ 60(5), (14), 62. These conditions shape every procedural choice described in this chapter. They are also the reason that most creditor litigation about Nevis structures takes place outside Nevis, against the settlor or member personally (see infra ch. 25).

Plan of the chapter. Paragraph 2410 describes how proceedings are started. Paragraph 2420 covers service within and outside the jurisdiction. Paragraphs 2430 to 2450 deal with interim relief: the freezing order and other injunctions under Part 17, the bars in the Ordinances, and relief in aid of foreign proceedings, including the Privy Council's decision in Broad Idea International Ltd. v. Convoy Collateral Ltd. Paragraph 2460 deals with disclosure, including Norwich Pharmacal and Bankers Trust orders and the confidentiality statutes. Paragraph 2470 covers receivers, enforcement and applications by trustees. Paragraph 2480 covers costs, security, settlement and appeals. Paragraph 2490 sets out a typical timeline and a checklist.

Absence of decided cases. No reported decision has been found, as of November 2026, applying section 24(4) or section 50(3) of the trust Ordinance, section 60(14) of the LLC Ordinance or section 113 of the Multiform Foundations Ordinance to an application for a freezing order or for disclosure. The readings in this chapter are drawn from the statutory text, the Rules and the decisions of the Privy Council and the regional Court of Appeal on the general law. Where a point is untested, the text says so.